Natural Cleaning with Baking Soda

Remember all those little “Mr. Yuk” stickers that were plastered on household cleaning products when you were a child? We were trained to not touch anything with a bright green “Mr. Yuk” sticker on it. I think it’s even safer, and perhaps easier as well, to just not have those dangerous poisons in our homes to begin with; but obviously, we need to clean our homes, right?

Luckily, there are natural cleaners that won’t hurt your kids or the environment. We’ve already discussed cleaning with vinegar which is a very versatile substance; one that many people overlook as a cleaning agent merely because of its strong odor.

You probably already know that keeping a box of baking soda in the refrigerator and/or freezer helps eliminate nasty odors. But did you also know that you can use baking soda to clean and deodorize your home?

Your parents or grandparents may have used a powder cleaner such as Comet to clean sinks, tubs, showers and even kitchen counters. In the same way, you can clean your kitchen counters, tables and other surfaces by sprinkling them with baking soda, scrubbing with a cloth then rinsing with water.

Have you ever forgotten to clean out your cooler? Or perhaps a bowl of leftovers in your fridge was overlooked for too long? If you have a stinky dish that you just can’t seem to get the nasty smell out of, try soaking it in hot water and baking soda. If the odor isn’t gone after a few minutes of soaking, try soaking it overnight.

Making a paste of the baking soda, with 3 parts baking soda and 1 part water, can be very useful. The paste can be used to polish silver; rub the paste on the silver, rinse with warm water and buff with a soft cloth. The baking soda paste can also be used to remove stubborn stains from most surfaces. Apply the paste, let sit for a while, then scrub or wipe clean. For bad laundry stains, apply the paste to the stain before washing.

Remove unattractive odors from your carpets by sprinkling baking soda on the carpet, letting it sit for 15 minutes then vacuuming. You can also remove unwanted smells from your laundry by replacing ½ of your detergent with baking soda. Dirty laundry sitting in a hamper can become smelly…sprinkle some baking soda in the hamper every couple of days between washings to keep the odor at a minimum.

As you can see, baking soda has a wide variety of uses. Chemical cleansers are not only toxic and poisonous, they’re also incredibly expensive! So save money by utilizing some natural cleaning agents such as vinegar or baking soda.

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